Ep.243: US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher

Ep.243: US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher

Recorded March 2nd, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher returns to share that we see the same societal impact from making cannabis illegal that we saw by making alcohol illegal- it was harmful to our country then as it is now. Representative Rohrabacher notes that he’s interested in inviting AG Sessions in for a discussion with the Cannabis Caucus. He goes on to share where he and his congressional colleagues are with current and future federal legislation including his Respect States Marijuana Laws. Just like Congressmen Blumenauer and Perlmutter did, Congressman Rohrabacher urges us- we the people- especially veterans, religious leaders and seniors- to visit our elected representatives in support of cannabis.

Transcript:

Speaker 2: us. Congressman dana rohrabacher recorded march, second us congressman dana, rebecca returns to share that we see the same societal impact for making cannabis illegal that we saw by making alcohol illegal. It was harmful to our country then as it is now representative or broker, notes that he's interested in inviting age sessions in for discussion with the cannabis caucus. He goes on to share where he and his congressional colleagues are with current and future federal legislation, including his respect states, marijuana laws. Just like congressman blumenauer and pearl motor did, congressmen were backer urges us. We the people, especially veterans, religious leaders and seniors to visit our elected representatives in support of cannabis. Welcome to cannabis economy. I'm your host seth adler. Check us out on social with the handycam economy. That's two ends on the word economy. Congressman dana rohrabacher,

Speaker 1: cannabis economy you've been on before, we call it a realtime history, illegal cannabis, and so you're. You got something to do with that congressman. Yeah, I think I recognized, I think I recognized at an early age how stupid it was to have policemen running around a, focusing their attention on people who were not hurting someone else when all kinds of people were being raped and murdered and horrible crime. Laser is sweeping the country and then we're interested in stopping them. People from smoking a weed in their backyard. What a waste of time and money. It doesn't make sense. I'll just. We don't have a ton of time, so I'm just going to go directly to, you know, I'm a secretary. Sessions just kind of mentioned two things in relation to cannabis, which I know you know better. It's relation to opioids. Of course there is none.

Speaker 1: It's relation to violence. Of course there are. There is a relationship to the opiate. Okay. Tell. Tell me how coarse it is. A fact is if we make marijuana illegal and we make research into the medicinal purposes of marijuana, we're going to end up giving opiates to our veterans and everybody else. There you have. It is just the opposite from these people who want to have a prohibition on cannabis. No, it's actually going to lead to more people using opiates and are so harmful, so harmful to other human beings. Absolutely. And then as far as, uh, the violence, obviously if we take the cartels out, that decreases the violence. WhaT else would jad there? Well, what we've got now by making a marijuana illegal, uh, is the same societal impact is when we tried to make alcohol illegal. Uh, what happened was it the fact that people were drinking.

Speaker 1: Now it can be said that people who drink actually are much more violent than people who smoke marijuana. It can be set. So you gotta ask the police and the police will always tell you they'd rather go to a building where the music is too high and they so and smells marijuana versus trying to crash into a party where people are being wild and crazy because they're all drunk without question. The so, so number one, you do have a less violence with, with a marijuana type of consumption on recreational things as long as we're talking about adults, but what, no matter who it is, uh, by making it illegal, we have then transferred, uh, a source of money, uh, to the drug cartels in prohibition. It's really gave tHat money to people like al capone who corrupted chicago and, and other, uh, you know, absolutely violent gang members, uh, and that we didn't need to do that.

Speaker 2: us. Congressman dana rohrabacher recorded march, second us congressman dana, rebecca returns to share that we see the same societal impact for making cannabis illegal that we saw by making alcohol illegal. It was harmful to our country then as it is now representative or broker, notes that he's interested in inviting age sessions in for discussion with the cannabis caucus. He goes on to share where he and his congressional colleagues are with current and future federal legislation, including his respect states, marijuana laws. Just like congressman blumenauer and pearl motor did, congressmen were backer urges us. We the people, especially veterans, religious leaders and seniors to visit our elected representatives in support of cannabis. Welcome to cannabis economy. I'm your host seth adler. Check us out on social with the handycam economy. That's two ends on the word economy. Congressman dana rohrabacher,

Speaker 1: cannabis economy you've been on before, we call it a realtime history, illegal cannabis, and so you're. You got something to do with that congressman. Yeah, I think I recognized, I think I recognized at an early age how stupid it was to have policemen running around a, focusing their attention on people who were not hurting someone else when all kinds of people were being raped and murdered and horrible crime. Laser is sweeping the country and then we're interested in stopping them. People from smoking a weed in their backyard. What a waste of time and money. It doesn't make sense. I'll just. We don't have a ton of time, so I'm just going to go directly to, you know, I'm a secretary. Sessions just kind of mentioned two things in relation to cannabis, which I know you know better. It's relation to opioids. Of course there is none.

Speaker 1: It's relation to violence. Of course there are. There is a relationship to the opiate. Okay. Tell. Tell me how coarse it is. A fact is if we make marijuana illegal and we make research into the medicinal purposes of marijuana, we're going to end up giving opiates to our veterans and everybody else. There you have. It is just the opposite from these people who want to have a prohibition on cannabis. No, it's actually going to lead to more people using opiates and are so harmful, so harmful to other human beings. Absolutely. And then as far as, uh, the violence, obviously if we take the cartels out, that decreases the violence. WhaT else would jad there? Well, what we've got now by making a marijuana illegal, uh, is the same societal impact is when we tried to make alcohol illegal. Uh, what happened was it the fact that people were drinking.

Speaker 1: Now it can be said that people who drink actually are much more violent than people who smoke marijuana. It can be set. So you gotta ask the police and the police will always tell you they'd rather go to a building where the music is too high and they so and smells marijuana versus trying to crash into a party where people are being wild and crazy because they're all drunk without question. The so, so number one, you do have a less violence with, with a marijuana type of consumption on recreational things as long as we're talking about adults, but what, no matter who it is, uh, by making it illegal, we have then transferred, uh, a source of money, uh, to the drug cartels in prohibition. It's really gave tHat money to people like al capone who corrupted chicago and, and other, uh, you know, absolutely violent gang members, uh, and that we didn't need to do that.

Speaker 1: It was harmful to our country. And eventually people were honest enough about it to say, yeah, we're, we're financing evil people by making this illegal. Let's put the business community involved in it. Let's make how the money is accountable. Right now. They can use banks. That's right. And so, uh, there's no accountability and there's no labeling on the, uh, on the items either. when you have a situation you don't know what strong a dose that was getting a, we don't know if whoever's selling it, uh, we don't know who had l who puts something into it and talking about opiates, uh, some of these gangsters, we'll put a heroin or something else and lace the, uh, their marijuana with this. So, hey, we want to protect people. If you want to protect people from themselves, let's make sure people have a label and know who's providing what, what you're consuming to give you the choice to consumer, not there you go, regulate it.

Speaker 1: And, uh, you know, put the information right there as they're doing in Colorado and other places as far as coming after adult use and separating it from a medical, um, you know, where do you come down there? How can we get better information to, to the secretary, to secretary sessions? Well, the secretary sessions is an honorable man and uh, but he is a person who's grown up in a culture, uh, that, uh, uh, would see the consumption of marijuana as an evil because what went along with the people who were smoking marijuana in the sixties when he developed his perceptions of the world. Uh, You had, uh, basically people who were promoting hedonism. Okay. And from his perspective, from his perspective, he is a christian and I am a christian to. Sure. Sure. Uh, but, uh, I'm a jew for the record. I know, you know, or a religious person and not a hedonist, whatever your religion is and the, and the bottom line is that, uh, he, that in his mind, that's what goes with marijuana, is a sort of a hedonistic lifestyle, but, you know, that's just not the way it is.

Speaker 1: The fact is there are so many people now, it respectable positions, business leaders, people who have been highly successful in our country who have deep do consume marijuana not every day but, but, uh, but have consumed and sometimes use it for recreational purposes. So I, I said secretary sessions, I'm used to saying senator sessions, of course it's attorney general sessions. That's right, yeah. What, when, you know, so I led you down the wrong path there, but as far as you know, you said he's an honorable man. How can we kind of. Is it, how do we do this? Obviously they cannabis caucus is part of this, right, is educated. I think that uh, uh, maybe the cannabis caucus and I will, uh, uh, we'll see if he's open to this is come over and talk to us about it and I will ask my fellow members to invite him over it and have this discussion.

Speaker 1: Right. And, uh, he, we do have 68 republicans that voted for the robotic or farr amendment and I have known a jeff sessions for all these years. I, in fact, politically, we were both active and young americans for freedom together way back in the 19 sixties. And uh, so, you know, I, I know him, I like him and frankly accepted on this issue. Uh, we have a wide area of agreement, short w what about kind of coming at it from a personal freedom from a state's rights, a approach? I mean that, those seem to be concepts that, that he would of course adhere to. I think individual freedom is the words they use. Fair enough. And uh, uh, I, uh, uh, I think that whether it's individual freedom or whether it's a states rights in terms of the 10th amendment or whether it's personal responsibility or whether it's doctor patient relationship or whatever it is, those are things that supposedly republicans believe in and I have not, I to be fair about it as a jeff sessions is a good friend and an honorable man and I have not chosen to face, you know, try to get in his face about this just right.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I, yeah. Jeff and I, uh, just no one. Oh, uh, you know, I, I liked the guy, I respect him. He's my friend and I don't want him to feel like I'm getting in his face, but I will invite him over for a discussion and honest discussion of this is that said, then let's talk about the cannabis caucus and I know that banking and I know that to 80, he, you know, I, I know that those are big issues that you guys are kind of coming together on. Can you, can you take us through all. I first of all, let me just note that, uh, uh, when we do invite a jeff sessions over a, we can, we can talk about some of these myths and he could meet people that, uh, and, and we are not. This is not a partisan issue now and uh, uh, but the most important item that jeff sessions needs to know, and I needed to know this when I worked for ronald reagan, I was ronald reagan's at one of the reagan speech writers, indeed for seven over seven years in the white house.

Speaker 1: I was a special assistant to the president of United States. Jeff sessions really works for Donald Trump, and Donald Trump, I think has been very specific about marijuana, about cannabis. He answered the question a couple times in the election and each time he said that marijuana for medicinal purposes, uh, that's something that absolutely needs to be legalized. And for recreational purposes that should be left up to the states. Now, a general sessions needs, does, hopefully recognize that and we will remind you. We're going to remind him that president trump made that commitment. I love it. This sounds great to me. You know, um, it sounds like where the conversation needs to be, where does the conversation need to be in terms of banking, in terms of, well, look, uh, I am, uh, a very sympathetic with these people now who say, well, let's try to fix this one step at a time.

Speaker 1: Right? Banking is important because that will enable people to keep their books that will cut down to the graft and crime and cut down. They're a criminal element that wants to rob them. And it also should cut down the number of, uh, uh, of other robbers who happened to be law enforcement officers trying to get asset forfeiture by stealing money. Uh, but, uh, we can, uh, uh, hopefully, uh, we can deal with those issues one at a time or I have alleged piece of legislation that just covers it all and it says, and it's a respect, respect state state marijuana laws. And, uh, that bill will, I think it's a bill hr nine slash 75, I believe. And, uh, that bill would just say every department and agency in the government will treat, uh, the, those people in the states where, where cannabis is either legal for recreational purposes or medical purposes, they will treat that the way that people of that state have voted.

Speaker 1: So, whether it's banking laws or whatever, if that shit don't take care of, of all of them. All of these discrepancies where the federal bureaucracy, uh, treats, uh, uh, everybody else different and whether it's banking regulation or labeling a type of things as things such as that, how, how are we doing with that? I know that it was introduced, uh, obviously you've got a ton of support to tip from the folks that are listening. What about on the floor? Well, what we need is a, that's we're too early on to, to call to understand what we need people to go and see their congressman and especially if they are congress people, a republican congress people, the democrats who voted with us are going to continue. We need to convince a republican members to come over on this. This is the responsible and right thing to do.

Speaker 1: And how you do that is you have to go and you have to bring veterans in. Let them know that these, the eye, that argument about opiates, that general sessions made was wrong. the fact is more opiates are being used because marijuana is illegal. And uh, we need to make that case. our veterans need to make that case with their representative. We need people, uh, to go in and talk to the congressman and, uh, about whether or not, uh, uh, you know, there what this is doing to their life and how and why it is not economic and economic positive thing to have billions of dollars being spent in order to basically prevent a, somebody who's a smoking weed in their backyard and when they, and what did they do? Did they ruin the life of that person by arresting them and uh, they, they have a stigma from then on.

Speaker 1: Let's Get some religious and church leaders in showing compassion, which we should. And if people are having trouble with drugs and there are people who have trouble with drugs, we know that go down to skid row, you'll see it. And I was skid row in la. It's thousands and thousands of these people, many of them drug addicts, many of them alcoholics and, but whatever they are, they deserve our sympathy and uh, our attempt to deal with them on a humanitarian way, but not based on putting someone in jail if they're caught with a baggie of marijuana in their pocket. Right? That just doesn't, where does that come into this, right? You know, it doesn't help anybody and it feeds the drug cartel and uh, uh, and enriches them and empowers these people in third world who are just like al capone was here, as I say. There you go.

Speaker 1: So we need to, we need to express that to our republican congressmen from religious leaders and for veterans in particular. Excellent. As far as rebecca hinchey, rebecca, rebecca blumenauer, that's it. Ruined. It's harder to say, but uh, well that's it. You got a lot of vowels there. Well, yeah, that's what got a lot of german sounding names. They're true. But uh, in terms of the, this time, number one, how good do you feel about it? Number two, what is the chances that you can add adult use to that? Uh, I think that the, the, uh, it's absolutely clear that we will be able to, uh, keep the rohrabacher farr amendment. Now they were about her blumenauer amendment in play in the appropriations process, which just based and for medical marijuana, the next step is to do the same thing in the appropriations process. And that means in the appropriations process, all we're doing the same.

Speaker 1: The federal government can't use any money, including their personnel to override states' rights. Uh, but I would hope that my bill a would become the, uh, and I think all that's going on my bill a hr nine 75, and uh, we'll check on that. But, you know, respect to state marijuana laws, we hope that becomes the centerpiece. And I would say, uh, the chances of us getting it done for another year with this audition, so we aren't losing ground is highly likely. And I would say it's very doable if we really put out the effort to make that recreational now, uh, and uh, however, it's probably going to be a real tough job to, uh, to start to see if we can, uh, uh, actually, uh, past my bill. Which would then mean you would not have to have these bills every year. Of course not. And you say the timing's not right on that you say, but you are talking about kind of a year's time is we've got two things going for us here.

Speaker 1: And number one is that the president United States that said that, uh, he's empathetic and going in the right direction, but number two, the american people want to go in the right direction. Every poll indicates that the actual position of the american people today overwhelmingly is not have the federal government or frankly even their local governments have their voting this way like we did in California, uh, that we should not have government involved with a spending their limited resources on putting people in a that the, the, the finances of police officers, uh, people who ran the jails, people who run the court system. And then all of this we're going to bring to play rather than helping people protect themselves from other criminals. We're gonna waste our money on that. The american people, they are catching up with that decision really easily. And there's also, by the way, one group, senior citizens who are like in senior homes and things, I think they need to talk to their congressman to.

Speaker 1: There is no reason in the world of they get their appetite back or to have a mild euphoria that they, that some 80 year old person a in a and in an assisted living home, can't smoke a joint for pizza or you know, gummy to bring their appetite back and things like that. The boomers one more time. Right? There you go. I just want to make sure I got ya. And we're going to end here, but I just want to make sure that I got you on. Um, on, on backer blumenauer, did you say that there's a possibility that you could add a adult use to that just to kinda make the playing field a little bit more even for everybody type of thing? A adult use. I, uh, it was just a right now it's just the states, whatever the state's, uh, that's all accounts, but the states have legalized adult use.

Speaker 1: That would be a uh, I guess that would be easier to pass here. That's what we're doing, but I think that's, that's the issue anyway. I mean, nobody thinks we're trying to lead less use of marijuana for minors. Okay. Uh, and what I'm saying is that they can't spend money on, on medical cannabis laws, uh, they, because of backer a far, could you add adult use to that so that they could not spend money to, uh, to come after adult use? Oh yeah. We had that. We actually, we actually had another amendment, uh, and it was mcclintock yes, of course. And that came within 10 votes and passing and mine did pass with a very solid majority and his came within 10 votes. That was a great victory because that was for a adult use. Okay. So we got to go with that, uh, that route for that type of thing.

Speaker 1: As I say, I think that getting the medical end of it, uh, is, is, is really doable. I'm optimistic, perfect. Adding adult use or for recreational purposes, uh, is doable and uh, and we'll, we'll work on it and I, I think we can win. Not optimistic. We will, but we can and it wouldn't surprise me if we did. And then of course, my bill, which would be a real change in the law period. And uh, we'd never have to worry about the, these amendments every year. And now I'm understanding how it, uh, how lines up in your mind. Thank

Speaker 4: you for that. Three final questions. I'll tell you what they are and then I'll ask you them in order. What has most surprised you in cannabis? What has most surprised you in life? And then on the soundtrack of your life, one track, one song that's got to be on there. First things first, what has most surprised you, congressman dana rohrabacher about cannabis?

Speaker 1: Uh, well, what most surprised me is that I now I'm leading the fight nature nationally to legalize it for adult use. Well, I saw a guy in. Okay.

Speaker 4: Beard on a surfboard out there, right?

Speaker 1: That's you. Oh yeah. Well, I've been, uh, I advantaged, uh, since I was 23 years old. Never to have a smoked marijuana. And to this day, yeah, to this day, I put a little savvy on my arm and I had some arthritis pain, but I haven't smoked marijuana since I was 23 years old. I haven't touched it. And so when I came here to this, to this job, that was not my intent of getting involved in this issue, but it's so overwhelmingly bad and a wasteful and not only of money but of people's lives to have the, our, our, our law enforcement resources and limited amount of money being wasted this way to try to try to prevent an adult from smoking a joint in his backyard that I did have to get involved. And also I saw our veterans coming back not being able to be treated with anything, uh, but opiates. And so, uh, the thing is most surprised me is that I'm leading the fight now.

Speaker 4: There you go. And thank you for doing it. What's most surprised you in life?

Speaker 1: Uh, in life? Rise me a life that, uh, how wonderful being a father is. And I have a, a that a 12 year old triplets at home, a boy and two girls, and a most surprised about life is that when I was younger I lived a pretty wild life, but I was really young and very wildlife. And uh, uh, now I have been happily married now for 20 years. And uh, uh, I think that, uh, that surprised me. I thought I was, I never thought that I was going to be able to have a regular life. And here I am a congressman, but I have a wonderful home life as well.

Speaker 4: There you go. Give my best to the misses on the soundtrack of your life. One track, one song that's got to be on there.

Speaker 1: Oh, uh, uh, uh, individual man, that's, I have this song, individual man that I wrote and uh, uh, at the end, uh, individual man and uh, god bless our freedom is another song I wrote. Those are two very pro american pro freedoms individual men. Has it been recorded? I wonder. Um, I'm sure somebody has got it. And, uh, the, uh, the earlier versions are pretty wild. And that was, I wrote it before I was 23, I say so, uh, anyway, but, uh, you know, we're, we all grow up and uh, uh, I think both of them reflect a, a, a, you know, calling out for liberty and justice and freedom. And that's what America is supposed to be all about. We'll look him

Speaker 2: up. Thank you so much. Once again. And when you do invite the attorney general, let us know. We're excited. Okay. You got it. Thank you sir. And there you have congressman dana rohrabacher, very much appreciate his time. Of course. Very excited to hear what could come out of a potential meeting with him and the attorney general. It seems to have a good relationship with them. They seem to be friendly, so hopefully they can work it out on this issue. I don't know. In the meantime, it's up to you and me to get to the congressional offices that we can get to.

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